ST. PETERSBURG: In what has been one of the toughest road trips in the history of the Red Sox roster, there was an added urgency to win the night Chris Sale was on the mound.
It wasn’t easy, though, how could the Red Sox expect things to happen lately?
The bottom line is that they did what they set out to do, getting a single RBI from rookie Jarren Duran with two outs at the head of the ninth to lead in a satisfying 3-2 victory on Wednesday night at Camp Tropicana.
Christian Vázquez started the wheels when he threw a solo draw on the left with an outside in the top of the seventh.
Garrett Whitlock threw two embossed clutch entries from Sale to win the victory.
Rafael Devers started the key rally in the ninth with a single on the right. With an out, Alex Verdugo headed for a field single with a helicopter.
Duran took the lead in the 2-0 lead and finally got enough of a 2-1 slider from Rays reliever Pete Fairbanks to get into the right field. Devers roared from the second, making it narrowly without slipping.